


Merry Christmas, baby

by Quire



Series: RWRB Winterfest prompt fills! [1]
Category: Red White & Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston
Genre: Alex is a bit of a nervous wreck, Christmas Eve, Christmas Fluff, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Gen, Henry misses his dad, M/M, Phillip helps, There's a baby, suprisingly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:00:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28050558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quire/pseuds/Quire
Summary: Henry and Alex get called away from Sandringham right before Christmas dinner and have to make their way back into London.
Relationships: Alex Claremont-Diaz/Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor, Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor & Philip Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor
Series: RWRB Winterfest prompt fills! [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2059488
Comments: 17
Kudos: 83
Collections: RWRB Winterfest 2020





	Merry Christmas, baby

**Author's Note:**

> Done for the RWRB Winter Fest collection. #24, family. 
> 
> I'm not sure if I'm supposed to do this in order, but oh well.

Henry watches Alex pace back and forth, wondering how his husband hasn’t already burned a hole through the green linoleum floor. Alex seems to be on level five of his stress scale; intermittently pulling at his hair and wiping his palms on his jeans. If the situation were a little different, Henry might have laughed at him.

“Alex, darling, you’re freaking out.”

Alex stops pacing for a moment and looks at him open mouthed. “Of course I’m freaking out. I was freaking out long before we even got here. How in the hell are you not freaking out?”

He thinks back on the last twenty-four hours. They had been at Sandringham for Christmas with the rest of Henry’s family. The whole day had gone by surprisingly smoothly; Henry and his siblings had played their annual Christmas eve soccer game, had lunch/tea with the whole family, and had finished opening the presents and decorating the tree. They were just heading down to dinner when they got the call from Amelia that she was in the hospital.

Henry had been strangely calm during the almost three hour car ride back into London and to St. Catherine’s. Alex had been fluctuating between excited and on the verge of a mental breakdown and Henry had just been… existing. He had been excited and happy, of course he had—and he still is, but there was and still is a sense of… something lingering in his mood.

“Well, one of us has to be the calm one.” He jokes with a smile.

Alex laughs a little before returning to his pacing. Henry watches him with a small smile. Throughout this whole process, his husband has been the most anxious of the two of them. Everyone had expected Henry to be the one anxiously worrying over every single detail. The complete roll reversal threw him off for a little while, but he’s used to it now after almost nine months.

Henry sits back down in his chair, pulling out his phone to check for any messages. There’s none from his family, which is a little surprising seeing how Alex and him pretty much bailed on Christmas eve dinner. Then again, they’re probably in the middle of Christmas eve dinner.

He’s about to make another joke about Alex when the door to the hospital room swings open and a nurse steps into the doorway. Henry’s on his feet instantly, and Alex immediately stops pacing. The nurse smiles at their nerves. “You two can come in now.”

Alex walks into the room first, and Henry follows almost hesitantly. He nearly runs into Alex’s back when the man in front of him stops suddenly. Henry follows Alex’s gaze to the left; To Millie in the hospital bed, and the baby in her arms. Their baby.

She smiles at them, “So, would you two like to come over and meet your son?”

Alex just kind of stares at her and sputters. Henry understands the feeling. They have been planning, and hoping, and anxiously waiting for this for the past nine months and yet, Henry feels all kinds of surprised and unprepared.

“It’s a boy?” He finally chokes out, taking a shaky step towards Millie.

She nods with a smile, looking down at the tiny human in her arms. Henry slowly makes his way over, heart melting. He is still unable to wrap his head around the fact that this tiny little thing is their baby. Their son. It takes a minute for Henry to realize he’s crying.

Millie smiles again and moves to hand him the baby, “You wanna hold him?”

“Let Alex hold him first.” Alex goes to protest—which Henry finds pretty funny because ten minutes ago all Alex wanted to do was hold this baby—but Henry stops him. “Darling, hold your baby.”

He thinks the happiest he’s ever been, watching Alex hold their baby. It feels better than any of their anniversaries, or even their wedding day. He’s elated… and yet there’s still something. Henry can’t even name it, but watching Alex hold their baby has settled something heavy in his chest as well as given him all this happiness.  
He can figure out what it is later, though. For now, he thanks Millie profusely and asks her if he needs anything, he watches Alex gently hold and rock their baby, and he revels in the happiness of this one moment.

—

  
The hospital lets them move to their own room with the baby, and when they get there it’s Henry’s turn to hold him. He’s held babies before; Some cousin’s passed their children around at Christmas some years ago, and he’s held both of Phillip’s kids when they were babies (numerous times). Henry was sorely mistaken in ever thinking that holding someone else's baby would ever have prepared him for holding his own.

Henry looks down at this little baby in his arms, full of joy, but there’s still that feeling. A heaviness that’s settled right into his gut. This inexplicable feeling of loss. It doesn’t compute; Henry didn’t lose anything, in fact, he gained a baby. He brushes it off as nerves.

Alex sits next to him, laying a soft kiss to Henry’s cheek before looking at the baby. “Well… I think those were the most stressful hours of my life.”

Henry snorts, trying very hard not to jostle the child in his arms. Though he agrees with Alex, it is kinda crazy that after everything they’ve gone through, this was the most stressful. They didn’t even have to do anything except get to the hospital.

“You’re two weeks early,” he says softly, “couldn’t you have waited just a little while longer?”

Alex nods beside him all serious, but his voice is all high pitched and calm. “It would’ve been appreciated… But, you got us out of Christmas Eve dinner with your uncle. Nevermind. Way to go, buddy.”

“Alex.”

“Sorry, babe.” He turns back to the baby. “You got me out of Christmas Eve dinner with your uncle, and I appreciate it.”

They sit like that for a while, staring down at the little tiny person tucked safely in Henry’s arms. He knows he’s definitely biased, but Henry thinks this is the cutest baby he’s ever seen. And, he’s seen a lot of babies.

“He’s so adorable.”

Henry smiles. “I was just thinking the same thing.”

“Did you know that babies come with the little hats?” Alex asks, shaking his head in amusement. He’s got that small smile on his face, the one that Henry loves so much. “Because I didn’t.”

He shakes his head. “Me neither.”

“He’s so perfect, Hen. He is absolutely perfect.”

Henry turns his head ever so slightly and presses a soft kiss against Alex’s lips. “He is. He’s our perfect little boy.”

Alex nods before breaking out into a laugh. “Holy crap, I gotta call my family. Yours knows but mine has no idea.”

“Our child isn’t even a day old yet, and you’re already swearing in front of him? Good lord, Alex.” He’s joking, but Alex still looks a little apologetic. Henry knows that both of them are going to have a little bit of a hard time curbing their curse words. He laughs and shakes Alex off. “I’m kidding. Go call your family love.”

Alex nods and reaches into his pocket for his phone, getting up and walking to the other side of the room. He’s smiling as he looks for his sister’s name in his contacts. “June’s gonna be so mad, she owes my dad fifty bucks.”

The words filter through Henry's brain and the feeling punches him right in the chest. It’s so obvious to him now, what he was feeling. The sadness and heaviness and grief. He understands why it’s there too; Alex has a dad he can call, and Henry doesn’t.

He doesn’t think about his dad too much. It’s awful, but it’s true. That absence has been so prolonged, the wounds healed and scarred over, that not having him here has become Henry’s normal. There are moments of course; Birthdays, his mothers anniversary, the day he died, the day of the funeral. Moments where Henry is sucker punched with the knowledge that his father missed so much, that his father won’t meet his husband, the knowledge that his father has been out of his life for fourteen years, that in 4 years his father will have spent more time out of Henry’s life than in it.  
This is one of those moments. For the first time, Henry is realizing that his dad will never meet his grandchild.

He thinks about this little baby in his arms and the man who held Henry in his. He tries to imagine it. His dad holding the baby, rocking him gently until the baby falls asleep because he’s babysitting for Alex and Henry. His dad telling wild and intricate stories to a little boy, different voices for each character. His dad’s stories were always the best. Henry thinks of birthdays and christmases where his son would’ve gotten cards and gifts from Grandpa. Maybe his dad would’ve bought him a telescope like he did for Henry.

He thinks about this baby, his baby, and how he’ll never get to meet this one integral part of his father’s life. Henry thinks about how his little boy has one less person in his corner. One less person to be there if he stumbles or falls. And Henry’s heart hurts for his little boy and he doesn’t know how to make it stop.

“Well…. My eardrums have been ruptured.” Alex jokes, walking back over towards the bed. “Remind me never to give June and Nora news without earplugs.”

He laughs, smiling up at his husband and trying very hard to conceal his inner turmoil. “Yes, well, you’d think you’d have learned that by now.”

Alex goes to answer, but a knock at the door interrupts them. When he opens it, Henry’s family is standing on the other side. It takes a minute for the both of them to get over the surprise of seeing them there, before letting them in.

“What are you guys doing here?”

Bea smiles and rushes over holding out her arms for the baby. “I wanted to meet my nephew. Now gimme.”

Henry hands her the baby and gets up to say hi to his mother and brother. Phillip’s in a tux, tie hanging around his neck, and his mother’s in a dress. Bea too, they’re both in very nice, very fancy dresses. At least Alex and him had to leave before they had gotten changed. Then a thought dawns on him.

“Did you leave in the middle of dinner?”

“Well, certainly not right in the middle. We left more towards the end.” Phillip smiles, he looks toward Bea and the baby and his expression softens impossibly. He looks like he did when his kids were born. “I hear I have a nephew now?”

“You do. Though I doubt Bea’s going to give him up anytime soon. She seems rather attached.” He jokes.

Phillip claps him on the shoulder. Congratulations, Haz.”

His mum pulls him into a hug as soon as Phillip steps aside. She squeezes him tight, and it makes his heart squeeze the same way because he imagines his dad would be hugging him like this too. “Oh, my baby has a baby.”

Henry smiles at her as she pulls away, “You wanna see him?””

Catherine smiles and completely blows passed him towards his husband and his baby and his sister. “Bea, give me that child.”

He watches them for a moment. His family, the people he loves most in his life, cooing over his baby. And, as much as he loves it, it’s painfully obvious to Henry who is missing. He turns back to his brother. “Can we talk?”

Phillip nods, and Henry leads him out into the hallway. His brother is looking at him concernedly, analysing him as Henry paces back and forth.

“Is everything alright?”

He nods. “Yeah, I just… I… How did it feel? When you had Charlotte and Frederick and dad wasn’t there?” Henry stops at Phillip’s surprised face, and he rubs a hand over his own. He didn’t really want to have this conversation with his brother, but he was the only one Henry could talk to. “I know… I know you didn’t like him, but how did it feel?”

Phillip looks pissed at him, but when he talks his voice is calm. Probably because Henry just had a baby and he’s trying to be nice. “Didn’t like him… Henry, I loved him. He was my dad, our dad, and I loved him as much as you did.

And it… it hurt. It hurt when Charlotte was born and I knew she’d never get to meet him. The same when Feddie was born. I remembered when he used to take us to sets and let us sit in the directors chairs, and I realized he’d never do that with my kids. That he’d never tell them his stories…” Phillip stops and laughs a little. “ He always h—”

“Had the best stories.” Henry finishes for him. He watches his brother for a minute before shaking his head. “He would’ve loved your kids, Pip.”

“He would’ve loved to be here for this, Haz.” Phillip smiles a little, shaking his head. “It did hurt for a little bit… And then Charlotte started to spin crazy stories, and she does the voices too. And I catch Freddie looking out the window up at the stars when I come to tuck him in… Dad’s there, it just takes a while to see him.”

Henry feels surprisingly choked up. He remembers the last conversation they had where Phillip showed this amount of emotion, a conversation in a different situation and it feels like forever ago. It practically was. This time is definitely better, spent talking about their dad. The last time the two of them had done that was when Phillip got him drunk after the funeral. It’s nice though, he decides. It’s really nice.

“Come on, I want to go hold my nephew.”

Henry stops him before they go in. “Thank you.”

His brother just gives him a nod and a smile before heading back into the room. Henry’s heart melts at seeing his mother and sister smile over his baby, Alex standing there watching them. Phillip walks over to them at the same time Alex walks back over to him.

“Everything okay?” He asks, wrapping his arm around Henry’s shoulders.

“Yeah,” he nods, “everything is perfect.”

Phillip’s now holding the baby, rocking him gently back and forth as Bea’s holding up a little plush keychain that Henry has no idea where she got it. His mom’s crying and smiling all at the same time. And it's… it’s nice. It’s nice, even though someone’s missing.

Alex must think the same thing, because he leans his head on Henry’s shoulder. “Merry Christmas, H.”

Henry smiles and watches his family and his baby, he leaves a soft kiss in his husband's hair. “Happy Christmas, my darling.”

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is probably incomprehensible, but I had the idea a few days ago. it kinda spun out from what it started as, but I like it. 
> 
> Thanks for reading! :)


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